The creator of men's label Subfusco is taking on the womenswear and corporate sectors.
Label founder Joshua Scacheri confirmed Subfusco had created a capsule womenswear collection to launch alongside its spring summer 2009/10 collection.
Part of the 'Collective Species' themed collection, the women's range featured six looks, many made from draped modal. Key pieces included pants priced $220 to $250, tops, skirts and a signature long dress in layered silk priced $400.
"The idea behind Collective Species is that the world has collapsed and there's only one man and one woman left, so in the women's collection there are a lot of earthy natural tones, asymmetrical hems and so on," the Brisbane-based designer said. "For a long time we've had sisters and girlfriends of our customers asking us to do a women's range and now we've finally done it."
Given Collective Species' "two people as one" theme, many pieces in the spring summer collection were unisex, he said.
Scacheri confirmed he was also in discussions with Brisbane's Victoria Park Golf Club and well known bar The Chalk Hotel, with a view to building on his emerging uniforms business. Approaches from both had followed his work on the corporate wardrobe for Brisbane club Cloudland.
"Cloudland's a big thing here in Brisbane. It's like the Ivy in Sydney," he said, adding he'd won the contract after the club invited three local designers to submit ideas.
"For the girls we did short sleeved shirts with puffed sleeves with the Cloudland logo designed into the back of the yoke. The ladies' uniforms are black with a donkey trim and the guys' are white with a donkey trim."
With second orders for Cloudland uniforms released late May, Scacheri said the corporate wardrobe business would prove a lucrative income stream.
"When corporate clients order they really order," he said. "Corporate garments are also much easier to produce than fashion. With fashion you always want what you're creating to be different and new, whereas corporate clients are the opposite. They tend to want designs that won't age too noticeably."
Subfusco joins Sydney designer labels Daniel Avakian, Leon Henry and Peter Morrissey in diversifying their business' to incorporate a corporate component.